Three things from the 11/27 game with the Nets: 1. Eric Gordon was getting good shots--especially against that zone last night. But he's missing early and often. Overall, he went 3-12 on uncontested looks and the advanced stats show that he hasn't made a 3 in the 4th quarter in about 7 games. Since he's getting 6 or 7 4th-quarter minutes each night (even with the blowouts), that's a little concerning. Does he need another game or two off to get his body right? We've got the depth to spread out minutes. Even Weber could give you 5 minutes on a part time basis and would just fine next to CP3. 2. CP3 has basically solved our turnover problems (14 assists with no TOs). 3. We had 31 assists on 42 makes. If EG was making his shots, Harden and CP3 would have each had at least 2 more assists.
Clint Capela is currently grabbing 24.4% of all available rebounds and blocking 5.9% of all opponent field goal attempts. If Clint were to do this for the full season, he would be only the second rotation player in NBA history (since blocks were a stat) to achieve these numbers, after 2015 Hassan Whiteside (who only played 48 games).
The thing is his scoring isn't divided equally into all 3-4 quarters. He is scoring tons in the first 2-3 quarters and only scores few points in the 4th quarter. And his FG efficiency goes way down in the 4th. https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/4th-quarter-points-per-game A lot comes from not trying anymore because the games are iced.
I stated that, but in closer games, scoring so little in the 4th is not a good sign. We should be thoroughly tested for closer games in the Playoffs.
sometimes he hasn't played much in the 4th quarter... don't read too much in to it, there is no sign at all
Rockets now 5th in Def Rtg (Non-garbage time) Extended their lead in Off Rtg to 2 pts/100 poss over GS (Non-garbage time) 115.9 - 113.9 https://www.cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/fourfactors Also to note, the NBA record ORtg is 115.6
“Thanks in large part to Harden’s complete offensive clinic, the Rockets currently rank second only to the Golden State Warriors in points per 100 possessions. They’re shattering their own benchmark for the most made threes per game in NBA history (knocking down a stunning 16.1 a night while taking 53 percent of their field goal attempts from deep), and they also rank third in pick-and-roll efficiency, averaging 0.98 points per possession on the play, according to NBA.com. All the while, Houston is providing an interesting counterpoint to the Warriors in terms of offensive basketball philosophy. Golden State is a joy to watch because of its pure shooting talent, frequently knocking down looks that mortal players have no business making: The Warriors rank only ninth in Second Spectrum’s Quantified Shot Quality metric, which measures the expected value of a team’s shot selection based on league averages, but they lead the NBA in shooting efficiency anyway because nobody outperforms the expected value of their shots by more. The Rockets are the opposite. They make their shots at a slightly higher clip than average, but it’s nothing special; instead, they thrive on relentlessly creating prime scoring chances, leading the league in shot quality with the highest expected value (a 54.1 effective field goal percentage) of any season in Second Spectrum’s database.Which goes back to the 2014 season. You can argue with the aesthetics of Harden and the Rockets’ methodical exploitation of basketball’s percentages, but it’s never worked to greater effect than in the early stages of this season.”
so we have been leading by more than 10 points for the entirety of every 4th quarter in the last 2 weeks.
On the Lakers win (12-3-17): I think this is one of those games that we can point to between "traditional basketball" and the new metrics. 1. We made 14 3s (on 37 attempts--yawn). The Lakers made a more traditional 9 of 28. That's a 15 point swing. A few years ago, I think the Rockets would have won that game by 8 or 9 (two or three possessions), but the 4Q was a rout because of our shot making. 2. The only thing that kept the game even remotely close was the Lakers' athletics and extra effort. Their deflections (14) and steals (9) matched pace with our numbers (15 deflections, 10 steals). If you've watched game, the Lakers were flying around to get those numbers. They simply couldn't space the floor like we do or keep up. My guess is twenty-year old Brandon Ingram will add some range to his shot over the next 2-3 years. When he does, look out.
Note that both the start of 2nd and end of 3rd/4th were routs. It's the bench effect of 48 minutes of HOF pt guards. The advanced stats to our juggernaut offense is simply the other teams can't match the sustained scoring of 48 minutes D'Antoni advanced stats.
Rockets are now the only team with a top 5 offense and defense with GS dropping to 7th Def Rtg. Still waiting on Non-garbage time numbers.
